Lesson 6: The Stigmata: Pains of Grace and Gnostic Scripture
A Question of Grace
As we mentioned earlier, the stigmata is often a sign of grace – a sign that God has looked upon an individual with favor. Painful though it is, stigmatics thank God for letting them share in the pain of his son.
The movie Stigmata presents a different idea: the stigmata is given to a non-religious woman named Frankie. When Fr. Kiernan hears that she does not go to a church, he shuts the book on the case because this is not in line with most stigmatics.
Putting aside the idea that Frankie is feeling the stigmata because she is the incarnation of a holy man, why would God give Frankie the grace of the stigmata?
Grace is a difficult theological concept. It is so difficult, in fact, that it is one of the reasons the Protestants broke from the Catholic Church and it has been responsible for many of the Christian splintering since then as well.
Grace is the means be which human beings are saved in the Christian sense. In other words, it is through grace, given by God, that Christians will find themselves in the presence of God after death in this world. The stigmata, therefore, is considered a sign that that person is definitely “saved.”
Let’s look at just two views on grace: the traditional view of the Catholics and that of the Lutherans.
- The Lutherans believe that grace is free from human cooperation. In other words, it is freely given by God. It is necessary for salvation, but there is nothing a human being can do to “earn” grace. “Believing” or doing good acts does not automatically qualify a person for grace or salvation.
- The Catholics believe that a person has to be “receptive” to grace in some way in order to receive it. Humankind has to actively cooperate with God in order to receive it.
These positions represent the most polarized representations and probably reflect the respective Churches’ position during the Reformation and Counter Reformation. These positions on grace are now much more nuanced than how I have presented them. Nevertheless, most modern Christian churches adhere to either one of the views or somewhere in the middle.
Note that the movie Stigmata seems to present a Lutheran sense of grace. That is, Frankie doesn’t do anything to receive the grace. She doesn’t go to church; she doesn’t admit to believing in any higher power. Although Frankie seems like a nice enough person, it is clear that her lifestyle doesn’t follow usually accepted Christian moral standards: She parties; she has extra-marital sex, etc. Despite this, she appears to have been given an extra-ordinate amount of God’s grace as proved by the appearance of the stigmata.
There are problems, of course, whenever humankind tries to figure out what’s on God’s mind, and the question of grace is one of those problems. If you think about both the Lutheran and Catholic argument, both have large pitfalls.
If a person doesn’t have to do anything to “earn” God’s grace, as the Lutherans say and the movie implies, then why do anything good at all? Why believe in anything, if God is going to give you grace whether you believe in Him or not? Why try to do anything good, if God is going to give you grace whether you’re good or not? This idea has led to the even more radical idea of predestination: God has chosen to give you grace or not before you are even born.
On the other hand, if one looks at the Catholic point of view, one is saying that God acts like an elementary school teacher. If grace is “earned” like one earns a grade in spelling, than one is taking the saving power away from God and giving it all to humans. This point of view, if taken literally, means that humans get to heaven on their own merit, and not by the love of a God who freely gives grace.
Note that this idea is what got the Catholics into trouble historically: If one can earn “grace” like one earns golden stars in kindergarten, then you find people counting the number of times they go to church, paying money to have confessions, and getting plenary indulgences for walking through special doorways. If you give all your money to charity, but you’re only doing it to get more points in heaven, then does that work?
So, the question remains for Christians: How participatory are human beings in their own salvation?
It seems logical that someone who believes in the Christian God and does good deeds should have grace, but, then again, it should not be assumed. As well, it seems logical that God, being almighty, can do exactly what He wants with his grace and not be under any manmade system of points to give His grace.
Faith, of course, comes into the question as well. It is one thing “to believe” that Christ existed and is the Son of God. Faith, however, is more than just “belief.” Faith is a daily conversion; a constant “putting yourself in God’s hands.” It is a centering of one’s life on the idea that Christ was the Son of God. It is therefore extremely difficult and requires divine help. In other words, faith, like grace, is also God-given so it runs into the same problem. “Belief” is what humankind has to do, but you need God's help to have “faith.”
So to say that Christians are saved by faith presents the same problem as saying that Christians are saved by grace. Do Christians achieve faith by themselves, or does God give it to them?
Think about Frankie in the movie. Certainly God has His God-given right to choose anyone he wants to give grace to (though, perhaps, Frankie never has “faith.”) And He can choose anyone He wants to serve as His messenger.
Frankie is almost like St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul certainly didn’t earn “grace” (or even “faith” ). He was given it freely by God, in a very direct manner. Then God uses Paul as an instrument to deliver his message, despite his past sins – just as Frankie, theoretically, is being used to deliver a spiritual message.
And yet, it seems clear that people who do heroically good works out of the compassion that comes from their hearts must have God’s grace. If you work 24/7 to help the poor, the sick, and the oppressed, and you have no desire for reward (think Mother Theresa), then it seems you must have God’s grace. Don’t you? Or is that just making a man-made judgment?
I have no answers, of course. I am demonstrating how the film presents the topic for discussion.
Even if you are not Christian, it is a question that can be put into different terms: What makes a person a hero? Is it a god (or gods)-given trait that is out of that person’s control (like grace) ? Or is heroism earned by the hero alone?
